I never gave Americans enough credit to actually get together and "fight back" like this, but I am clearly proven wrong.

This movement is gathering energy and is sweeping the country. I am thoroughly impressed.

At first I wondered if it was going to be beneficial, if it would in fact change anything. But as I am slowly seeing more and more people in each city across the United States stand up in protest, I get just that much more hopeful that change can come from this. I'm not convinced it can yet, but I am remaining hopeful that it's possible.

There's very little a determined, unified, force of people who stand for a cause, can't achieve.

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.

They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.

They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.

They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.

What an idiot. Even if you don't support the Hyperbolic Occupancy over Wall Street, the fact that he labeled the 1960's Civil Rights movement as a "left-wing movement" that got "glorified" by the media is a bit of a joke and clearly shows he's missing the big picture.

"We have to be careful not to allow this to get any legitimacy,…
I'm taking this seriously in that I'm old enough to remember what happened in the 1960's when the Left-Wing took to the streets and somehow the media glorified them and it ended up shaping policy,... We can't allow that to happen."

The ones that actually know what they're protesting make great points, but I haven't been thrilled with the presentation. Even the very name suggests military operations- not very appropriate for peaceful protests. I've done a few marches and such, enough to know that there's a right way to go about it and oodles of wrong ways. Disrupting traffic, harrassing the police, encouraging people to "take the bridge," littering, camping where there are inadequate facilities and you can't dig a proper latrine are dangerous, criminal, or both. Oh, and the exercize of civil disobedience requires civility, and certainly does not involve crying foul and playing the victim when one gets arrested- since getting arrested in that case is part of the whole point. And yeah- the name. Nobody wants their communities occupied.

Meddle not with the heartstrings of fans, for we are powerful and hold your pursestrings.

It's a non-violent protest. At no point has there been any attempt to make civil disobedience from any official representatives of this movement, and no intentional attempts that I have seen. A protest is a protest, is a protest. It's purely within their (and OUR) civil rights to demonstrate how they/we feel, publicly.

This is far from the Riots in London.

And I have very good reason to believe this is exactly what America needs right now because even our own Justice Departments can't even squash this. If the country doesn't stand up to them, we're going to see a future that was considered fictional in a sci-fi film.

Great. Sadly, that hasn't been the case in NY. Merely calling a protest non-violent doesn't make it so. Meanwhile, the occupation of Boise has been getting vocal support from a camp we in Idaho especially dislike- the conspiracy theorists who blame everything on the Jews. One more reason why I'm steering clear of Occupy Boise. It doesn't strike me as "loosely organized," but so disorganized it can't keep its own house clean. Like the TEA Party, I fear this is already being hijacked by extremist yo-yos.

Meddle not with the heartstrings of fans, for we are powerful and hold your pursestrings.

Honestly, something has to be done before the greed of corporate America ruins our country completely. Seeing those smug self-interested businessmen drinking champagne in that one video makes me burn. My husband and I are doing what we can to send a message to large corporations. We recently dropped State Farm for a much smaller company and told them we refused to pay their outrageously overpriced coverage (our insurance doubled in one year, and by thousands). We patronize small stores and restaurants rather than chains if we can. We are considering dropping our AT&T U-verse for watching TV on the Internet. If you want to get them where it really hurts, learn to say no. I am well aware that can be difficult at times. We're doing the best we can to help small businesses.

I would be tempted to join one of these protests if there was one nearby, depending of the ideological statements of the organizers. It is very dangerous to start blaming any one race or religious group for the state our nation is in right now.

I'm still hoping for an independent to run for president. The current crop of politicians, both Dems and Reps, are so beholden to big money that I don't think many of them give a damn about any of us regular people.

Always a Queen of Narnia

There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds. G.K. Chesterton

Ange I think the movement is legit, and with every great sweeping movement you are bound to get fringe, radical, ding bats out to screw it up. I would try not to judge the efforts of countless thousands of middle and lowerclass Americans by the moronic actions of a small, idiotic group.

Indigo, try googling local "Occupy Wall st." Sit downs in your area one is bound to show up. With labor unions now jumping on this they're everywhere

Well, I'm middle/lower class, and I don't think these protests represent us very well. Michael Moore certainly doesn't. Nor do union members exactly, because some labor unions do try to force their membership to vote and protest according to the union's desires. Nor do those who come across as products of consumer culture with overblown senses of entitlement who would be very generous with other people's money, but haven't considered volunteering their own time and effort. (To the girl who complained on TV about her student loans- have you tried the Peace Corps or Americorps?) Nor do the bandwagon jumpers who think screaming at cops makes them just as cool as those protesting in Yemen or Syria.

Meddle not with the heartstrings of fans, for we are powerful and hold your pursestrings.

And still none of that hits the point, which is that this "Fat Cat" life style of the 99% working for the benefit of the 1% is killing this country and strangling the working class.

I would never ague with you that you're in middle class, I would be surprised if you said otherwise.

I don't think Michael Moore really matters. He's using his fame and popularity to get attention for the cause, maybe soak a bit of it up for himself. He's a blip on the screen so far as I'm concerned, and everyone else but Fox News seems to be aware of that.

And yes, the girl who "complained" on TV, or if you were to speak to mostly anyone else they'll tell you she informed America of her hopeless uphill battle with middleclass poverty and broken promises made to her in college, I'm sure she has explored all possible avenues. And just 'cause she's young and hip doesn't make her stupid or ignorant. And the Peace Corps or Americorps might not be what she wants to do with her life. Should she be forced to do something she doesn't want just for money? This is America, I thought.

What happened to that?

That's what most of this is about. "What happened to that American Dream?" we were promised.

Ange I think the movement is legit, and with every great sweeping movement you are bound to get fringe, radical, ding bats out to screw it up. I would try not to judge the efforts of countless thousands of middle and lowerclass Americans by the moronic actions of a small, idiotic group.

Indigo, try googling local "Occupy Wall st." Sit downs in your area one is bound to show up. With labor unions now jumping on this they're everywhere

That's just the problem. In the real world, you can't just do whatever you want. If you want to follow your dreams, you have to pay your dues. If someone needs help with their student loans, but they don't like any of the many and various options they have, complaining isn't going to accomplish anything except make them look like whiners who don't want to give back. The problem to me is that, rich and poor alike, most Americans have lost their senses of gratitude and service- asking what our country can do for us more than the other way around. It's like we think we're owed a taxpayer-funded bailout for debts we've chosen to take on- and we shouldn't have to give back if we don't want to.

Meddle not with the heartstrings of fans, for we are powerful and hold your pursestrings.

So, what are the protesters so upset about, really?Do they have legitimate gripes?To answer the latter question first, yes, they have very legitimate gripes.And if America cannot figure out a way to address these gripes, the country will likely become increasingly "de-stabilized," as sociologists might say. And in that scenario, the current protests will likely be only the beginning.The problem in a nutshell is this: Inequality in this country has hit a level that has been seen only once in the nation's history, and unemployment has reached a level that has been seen only once since the Great Depression. And, at the same time, corporate profits are at a record high.In other words, in the never-ending tug-of-war between "labor" and "capital," there has rarely—if ever—been a time when "capital" was so clearly winning.

It's true. It is alarming how insanely fast the Banks and market benefitted off the middle and lower class losing homes and jobs and becoming unable to pay off their debts, which were acquired at a dubious time when people were under the impression everything was at a free-for-all.

I watched the HBO film by Curtis Hanson called Too Big To Fail a couple of times over the last two days.

it's an alarming movie and being most of the dialogue is backed by public record, it's pretty accurate.

The scariest part of the whole movie is when one of the staffers U.S. Treasurer Henry Paulson (Heard), Michele Davis (Nixon), has to have the entire mess explained to her the most simplified terms so she can then turn around and explain it to the American people in a public statement-- once all of it is laid out in its simplest form, the whole problem stands alone in the spotlight.

So unfortunately some regions are getting it right and being pushed out. Meanwhile, some regions are just flat out getting it wrong (and creating a space for vagrants, hobos, and essentially creating a soup kitchen in the park), and not being pushed out.

Providence is (in as lawful a way as possible) being evicted, which is a shame because I have some friends there doing some reporting and apparently the movement was a mess there. People didn't get their shit together in time and now there's people practically brawling, but the Brown University students (as well as some Johnson & Whales as well as Providence College and Rhode Island College) students are putting together a 3-day concert for the weekend to keep the movement alive and people feeling like they're still doing something.

It's not helping that they injured an Iraqi Vet who was protesting when he got caught between an over-zealous use of flash grenades and other non-lethal weapons from "RIOT" police.

"We mean nobody goes to work, nobody goes to school, we shut the city down," organizer Cat Brooks said. "The only thing they seem to care about is money and they don't understand that it's our money they need. We don't need them, they need us."

Anyone who threatens to shut the city down is a criminal or at least interfering with other people. Once the protest interferes with anyone else going to school, going to work, or otherwise living their lives as they see fit, it becomes an outright abuse of the First Amendment and therefore does not qualify as free speech. Everyone's rights end when they interfere with someone else's- and such threats do not win sympathy from the real 99%- who do not throw rocks (as other reports have some supposedly non-violent protesters in Oakland doing), or do not try to camp out in sub-freezing temperatures in parks where the restrooms have been closed for the winter (as just happened in my town).

Meddle not with the heartstrings of fans, for we are powerful and hold your pursestrings.

I'm glad to see a bit of fire in this generation at last. It was about time. And they have just points. I'm reminded of the Damslapers, the hippies who slept on the Dam square in Amsterdam in 1969. The navy came and kicked their asses, but in the end most of the things they stood for came to pass, because the nation saw how they were treated and realized it was time for change.Let's hope they can keep down the violence this time, but the desperate, cynical way inequality is ingrained into the system in the USA...Things had better change soon, or there may yet be revolution.

“You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy a bike and that’s pretty close”

I agree with you Elwing. It's about time regular people start saying enough is enough to corporate greed. I'm saying no to the Bank of America fees and transferring all my money. They are raking in the cash while the middle class salaries are going down. This is crazy. Who do they think will buy their products if they take all our money? And while one of the best places to tell them where to go is by how we vote, there is so much corruption in Washington that I don't think we have any representation. I'm sorry, the so called "Tea Party" movement stands for big business too, so how are people supposed to change the system. There is going to be much more violence if Washington doesn't listen.

Always a Queen of Narnia

There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds. G.K. Chesterton

Libertarian and consumer reporter John Stossel interviews supporters and critics of the protesters, and agrees that government bailouts are wrong, but ask the question, "So what if there are people who makes thousands of times more money than others? Hasn't everybody - including the protesters - benifited from huge corporations?"

Indigo_Lady wrote: And while one of the best places to tell them where to go is by how we vote, there is so much corruption in Washington that I don't think we have any representation. I'm sorry, the so called "Tea Party" movement stands for big business too,

The tea party is against the big business/bank bailouts as well. They do support business in general...but they're just as angry at the corruption in both the private sector and the goverment that created this recession.

OWS is not grassroots, though. It was orchestrated in Canada and has a money trail going to China. I do indeed suspect there is political foul play in this- and the stated goal is to destabilize the nation. I'm not into corporate greed and politicians pimping themselves for campaign funding, but if people mean half the crap they're saying about violent revolution or knocking down a country that- flaws notwithstanding- is still a pretty good place- they deserve stiff opposition. Instability is not inevitable. If it happens, it is entirely the fault of all sides who are unwilling to cooperate.

Meddle not with the heartstrings of fans, for we are powerful and hold your pursestrings.

And Adbusters, who spearhead this "leaderless" occupation is headquartered in Canada.

There are also the bought protestors who are getting paid to hold signs. If a movement is legit and sincere, why is there any need to hire picket line mercenaries? And where is that money coming from? Labor unions, a lot of which are just as bad as corporations when it comes to buying our government.

Then there are reports of people getting paid to protest and the incriminating videos of people planning and scheduling their own arrests, proving they don't give a rat's rear of the public service resources they're wasting.

Meddle not with the heartstrings of fans, for we are powerful and hold your pursestrings.